The scrape of movement ahead echoed through the tunnel, sinking into the bones of every man present. The strike team froze. Even the air felt tighter, held in the jaws of the underground darkness.
Yan Xiu lowered herself into a fighting stance, blades turned backward for swift close-range slashes. Yao lifted his lamp higher while Peng swallowed hard, gripping his spear with trembling hands.
Zhang leaned toward Li Wei. "If we die here, brother… it better be for something worth dying for."
Li Wei whispered back, "It will be."
But his throat was dry.
The first chamber waited beyond the pressure plates—waiting like a predator. And the Hunter-General's symbol carved into the far wall burned in Li Wei's mind:
"I am watching."
Li Wei inhaled deeply.
"We move forward. Follow exactly where I step."
The pressure plates formed a deadly mosaic on the floor—slightly uneven, arranged in a pattern only someone trained to observe could see. Li Wei guided the team around the plates with painstaking precision. Each step was slow, measured, and silent.
The slightest mistake would be their last.
Zhang muttered under his breath, "How did he even design this? It's like a maze built by a madman."
Yan Xiu corrected him softly. "No. Built by a genius. A hunter."
It took nearly five minutes for all five of them to cross.
Li Wei's foot touched the final stone square, solid and safe.
"Clear," he whispered.
The team exhaled.
But then Yao stiffened. "The sound is closer now."
Li Wei didn't ask what sound.
He'd heard it too.
A faint tick… scrape… tick.
Metal.
Against stone.
Rhythmic.
Purposeful.
Like claws slowly unsheathing.
Yan Xiu murmured, "Trap guardians."
Peng paled. "Trap what?"
She didn't explain.
Instead, she pointed toward the dim tunnel ahead, where the walls curved into a large, circular opening. Carvings etched into the archway resembled fangs.
Li Wei stepped forward—and the moment he crossed under the arch, torches along the walls flared to life.
Yellow flame erupted in a ring, revealing a massive chamber.
Circular.
High-ceilinged.
Smooth walls carved like the inside of a monstrous ribcage.
Zhang whispered, "We're inside… something."
Yao shook his head. "This is no natural cavern. It's crafted. Intentionally."
In the center of the chamber lay a raised stone platform with a single object on it:
A mask.
White bone.
Carvings like flowing scars.
Identical to the Hunter-General's own.
Peng shivered. "Is… is that his?"
Yan Xiu inhaled sharply. "One of his old training masks."
Li Wei approached slowly, flame-light dancing across his face.
But before he could touch the platform—
BOOM.
The stone door behind them slammed shut.
The entire chamber trembled.
Zhang cursed. "We're trapped!"
Yan Xiu lunged to the door, pressing her hands against it. "It's sealed. From the outside."
Yao spun around, raising his lamp. "Look at the walls!"
The carvings shifted in the torchlight—patterns of twisted shapes and figures, warping shadows that played tricks on the eye. Symbols marked each curved section of the wall.
Li Wei narrowed his eyes.
These weren't just decorations.
They were instructions.
Paths.
Warnings.
He stepped closer.
Yan Xiu whispered urgently, "Don't touch anything."
But Li Wei ignored her. His fingers hovered just above one of the engravings—a spiral symbol with a line striking through it.
Yan Xiu exhaled shakily. "Do you recognize it?"
Li Wei nodded slowly. "It means 'choose.'"
Peng whispered, "Choose what?"
The chamber answered for him.
A grinding noise echoed overhead.
CRACK.
A section of the ceiling shifted, opening like a giant lid.
Shadows poured down the walls.
Something crawled inside the chamber.
Large.
Metal.
Sharp.
More scraping followed—
Three mechanical constructs, shaped like beasts of bone and metal, dropped onto the floor with thunderous weight.
Peng screamed, "What ARE those?!"
Yan Xiu's voice turned deadly quiet. "Training guardians. The Hunter-General used them to weed out recruits."
Zhang stepped forward with his spear. "They're just metal."
"No," Yan Xiu said. "They're killers."
The constructs moved with terrifying precision—jointed limbs clicking, metallic jaws snapping open and shut. Their movements were fluid, almost organic.
Yao stepped beside Li Wei. "What do we do? Fight?"
Li Wei stared at the symbols on the walls—the instructions.
"Not fight," he said slowly. "Not yet."
Yan Xiu snapped, "Then WHAT?!"
Li Wei pointed to the carvings.
"They're riddles. If we solve them, we disable the guardians."
Peng shouted, "And if we don't?!"
Li Wei looked at the beasts circling the chamber.
"Then we die."
The guardians crouched, preparing to lunge.
Yan Xiu narrowed her eyes. "Which symbol first?"
Li Wei's mind raced.
Symbols of beasts.
Symbols of balance.
Symbols of steps.
Symbols of traps.
The chamber was designed as a test—one Mei Lin would have trained in—meant to evaluate instinct, intelligence, and resolve.
He spotted it—a symbol carved deeper than the rest.
A circle broken by a single diagonal line.
"THAT ONE!" Li Wei shouted.
Zhang ran to it. "What do I do?!"
"Press the line!"
Zhang slammed his palm into the symbol.
CLANG.
One guardian froze.
Yan Xiu snarled, "There are two more!"
Li Wei scanned the walls again, pulse racing. "Those two—opposite sides—use the same pattern!"
The remaining constructs advanced.
Yao sprinted to one symbol. Peng—shaking uncontrollably—ran to the other.
"ON THREE!" Li Wei shouted.
"One!"
"Two!"
"THREE!"
They pressed the symbols simultaneously.
THUNK.
The chamber shook.
The two remaining constructs staggered—then collapsed, metal limbs rattling to the floor.
Silence followed.
Heavy.
Absolute.
Zhang dropped to his knees, panting. "I thought we were dead."
Yan Xiu wiped sweat from her brow. "Not yet."
Li Wei stepped toward the platform again.
"Now," he murmured, "we see what he wanted us to find."
The mask gleamed faintly in the torchlight.
Mei Lin's voice echoed in his mind:
"Don't open that door."
Too late.
Li Wei reached for the mask.
---
Teaser:
Beneath the mask lies a message from the Hunter-General—one that wasn't written on stone, but prepared specifically for Li Wei.
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